On August 23, 2004 Marianne headed off to her classroom to get some work
done in her room before school started. She knew that Shawn was
working as well and expected to maybe steal him away for a little while to
grab some lunch before she went back home. When she arrived at
school, she was surprised to find that Shawn was not at work yet.
Wondering if he may have slept in or maybe even have taken the day off,
she went on about her task and went to her classroom.
She
opened the door and went inside to find an envelope sitting on the first
student table when she walked in the room. The front of the envelope
read, "Please Open... Time Sensitive Materials." It was in Shawn's
handwriting, so she opened it quickly.
The contents of the envelope
included a clue to find "something." She located it...all the while
expecting Shawn to be hiding in the science storage room....(he was not)
instead she found a treasure map which would lead her to where he was.
She followed the map which
lead her to Lake Milton and Shawn. She has by now figured
out the surprise...but keeps that to herself as she greets him with a
smile. He has been waiting in
the parking lot for sometime (actually getting a little nervous), because
he had written her a book that he
shoved into that envelope she has found. It took her a little while
to read it.
They stood in the parking
lot and chatted for a little bit, looking out at the Lake. (The
pictures on this page are not from that day. They where taken later
when we decided to create this web page.) It was
still
early in the day, and the lake was covered with a fog that had not burned
off yet. You could barely make
out the water, yet it was still a beautiful site. Shawn delayed for
a little while, since he knew that she has figured out what was going on,
even though she did not admit it. He took her by the hand, and asked
her if she wanted to go for a little walk through the trails before they
left. She smiled and nodded and they started walking out along side
the lake.
A little ways down the path,
they came upon a bridge surrounded by trees and mostly secluded.
They stopped on the bridge. Shawn told Marianne, with a crackle in
his voice, that he had to ask her something important. Of course
when Marianne gets nervous, she just smiles a bigger smile... He
asked her to close her eyes... and just then... A jogger went by
them on the bridge... Marianne started to giggle (which is not good,
because she can never stop). Once they calmed down again, and she
closed her eyes, he put a paper butterfly in her hand with it was an
engagement ring....
